Covering the Angels and baseball in general for MLB.com. E-mail me at Alden.Gonzalez@mlb.com and follow on Twitter @Alden_Gonzalez.

Finally, some normalcy for Josh Hamilton …

Josh Hamilton is looking forward to playing some games at Angel Stadium. It has little to do with the booing he received in Texas, and more to do with the simple fact that, after going on a reunion tour through Cincinnati and Texas to start his Angels career, Hamilton can finally settle in a little bit.

“It’s good to get it out of the way, get that over with, get it settled,” Hamilton said. “I’m sure I’ll relive [the boos in Texas] every time we go back there, but I’ve been through it already. That’s the cool thing, when you can go through something. You get through it, then you’re prepared for it next time. But it’s more exciting for me to be here and be ready, as far as being in a routine for the next week or so. Same kind of schedule. That’s probably the most exciting thing for me.”

Hamilton, as expected, was cheered pretty loudly prior to his Angel Stadium debut on Tuesday night — but not much during the game.

The 31-year-old slugger made a nice diving catch in right-center field in the fifth and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. But he also struck out with the bases loaded in the first, flied out to deep left-center field in the third — with an overly aggressive Albert Pujols getting doubled up — bounced into a force out at home with the bases loaded in the fourth and grounded out to first in the eighth, making him 4-for-29 (a .138 batting average) on the year.

“It’s still an adjustment,” said Hamilton, who feels he’s made strides by coiling more prior to his swing, which helps keep him from flying open. “The biggest thing is getting the family settled in, and just coming here, learning a new park, learning how to get to places and learning what time I need to be places. So it’s going to be good.”

If nothing else, Hamilton doesn’t have to return to the vitriol of Rangers Ballpark until July. This past weekend was a rough one, with fans booing him loudly at the plate, giving standing ovations when he struck out, heckling him in right field and even prompting his wife to move into a suite for the final two games.

At one point, with the crowd loudly chanting “baseball town,” Hamilton pretended to throw a football and receive a snap from under center, prompting Rangers closer Joe Nathan to tell MLB Network Radio on Monday: “If he had been quieter, I think this weekend might not have been hyped as much. He egged them on a little, playing with them.”

Asked about Nathan’s comments, Hamilton said: “Well, you can’t let people get away with chanting ‘baseball town.’ I mean, a few here and there chanting it is fine. But when half about half the stadium gets into it, you have to bring it back to reality. That’s the only reason I got involved a little bit. I was silent until then.”

10 Comments

when you make half A– attempts at trying to catch a fly ball that was an easy catch and as you did this night do nothing at the plate and you wonder why you get booed.Then you and your wife wanted to shop around and the rangers let you do that and then your wife says te Rangers should not have let you look around and if they had wanted you they should have put a ring on it.HAVE A GOOD LIFE and get over it.

CJ, Josh, Mark Lowe how many other Ranger dregs are we going after before we finally realize Mike S is recognized as one of the best managers in baseball because he builds great “teams” from a group of “baseball” players. He doesn’t do neurotic prima donnas who are clueless and could care less about why they get paid so much money. It is all about performance and effort. Not about wives or rings or excuses.

Pujols went through the same adjustment last year and he didn’t have to go back to St. Louis the first week. We put too much pressure on these guys with the big contracts, make them feel like they have to be superhuman. Even highly paid ballplayers are still human beings with feelings. Give him a chance to settle down. I do think it would help if Sosh would move him to another place in the batting order until he gets himself grounded, like put him in #2, move Trumbo to #4 to protect Albert, followed by Kendrick or Ianetta, both of whom are hitting well right now.

Nice work. A minor request: could you turn off those rednimers (for example, automatically after the first couple of rednimers, or by allowing the users to turn it off)? It gets a bit annoying to get the reminder every time you go to the standby screen.

Josh Hamilton has as much God given ability as anyone you will ever see on a baseball diamond. The problem is he has a empty head, and in life only the strong survive. At this point he needs positive guidence and structure in the worst way, Something that Johnny Narron provided for him his first 4 years with the Rangers organization. After that stucture was removed from his life at the beginning of last season everything seemed to come apart for Hamilton. His performance suffured badly after mid may, he started popping off at the mouth, with stupid comment one after another, then basically quit on his team. What’s happening right now is just a spill over from the horrific ending to his Rangers career and I cannot see him turning things around without getting the help that he needs. You can see it in his inabilty to filter his thoughts from making it to his mouth, you can see it in his play on the field, you can see it in his ( I don’t give a SH-T attitude ) just like last season, and his empty headed wife isn’t making things better for him with all that’s going on.
I am truly surprised that the Angels have not recognized what the real issue is with Hamilton and moved to adress it. If they could ever get this guys head on straight they would really have something special on their hands. I am a Rangers fan and don’t dislike Hamilton at all. Just wish he would get the help that he needs.

I really don’t understand Dipoto”s thinking in bringing Hamilton on board, Tori Hunter was a great Angel whom many of the other guys looked to for leadership, and he hasn’t shown any sign of decline. I hope for Dipoto sake that things work out with Josh. I know he comes highly touted but I loved the fire that Tori played the game with. It will be sorely missed. Good Luck Josh

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